Talking

Iyyar is starting to talk more, and much more expressively, and now that I am home with him while Barak is at school I get the benefit of it much more than I did before. Barak tends to kind of dominate the conversation when he is here, not surprisingly, and until now I was hardly ever with Iyyar without Barak there. So now I am hearing all kinds of gems.

For example: in general, I buy generic diapers, but I get Pampers for Iyyar and Avtalyon to use overnight because they leak less. Pampers have Elmo on them, so they are very popular with Iyyar, who is right there in the Elmo target age bracket. I brought a bunch of Elmo diapers for the trip, and now Iyyar is, sadly, out of them (and into generic Titulim, which seem fine) while Avtalyon still has a stack left. A couple of days ago, I was putting Avtalyon into a clean diaper with Elmo on it, while Iyyar watched--rather resentfully, as it turned out. "No want it!" he told me emphatically, lips pushed out in a pout, shaking his head firmly for emphasis. "No want it Elmo baby tooshie!" If I can't get Elmo, NOBODY gets Elmo.

Speaking of Elmo, he is very much a fan. He refers to all Muppets generically as Elmo, but does also identify Ernie (uh-nee), Big Bird (bih buh), Grover, (go wuh) and Cookie Monster (kumana!) Diction may not be his strong point, but expressiveness is. He does the best faces, and also gives the best hugs; if you ask him for a hug, he'll usually say no, but if you then act all hurt and pretend to cry, he'll rush up to you, fling his arms around you, and carol "hug!" Better than that it getteth not.

He's got a new name for Barak, who is now "Ayyar!" (funnily enough). When we drop Barak off at school, Iyyar is often perturbed: "Where Ayyar go?" And sometimes, when waking up from a nap or in his high chair, Iyyar will call roll.

"Abba? Where Abba go?"

"Abba's davening."

"Ayyar?"

"Barak's at school."

"Naya?"

"Binyamin's home."

"Ah koh?"

"Yaakov's at home too."

"Baby?"

"Baby's shluffing."

"Baby oofing?"

"Right, he's shluffing."

Then, seriously, "Oh. Kay."

When he sees a park, which happens roughly every sixty seconds around here, he demands to avail himself of it ("pay! pay!") and when he sees the falafel store, he knows just what he wants "Ah foo! Ah foo!" And he's developed a habit, clearly derived from his big brother, of calling me in a very peremptory fashion. "Ah MA!" he bellows, righteously, sometimes whacking me insistently on the closest body part (and getting told off for potching). Pay attention to me NOW!

And, of course, he lives to go outside ("annai!") and eat, well, just about anything, but especially cheese ("shee"), milk, ("muk!"), bananas ("na na") and anything that I am eating ("DAT!")